Author: obj5022

Owen Joachim

Josh Wede 

Psychology 100

11/13/2023

 

For my second blog post, I chose to write about Phobias. Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder characterized by an intense and irrational fear of a specific object, situation, or activity. These fears can be so overwhelming that they lead to significant distress and impairment in a person’s daily life. Phobias often result in avoidance behavior, where individuals go to great lengths to avoid encountering the thing or situation that triggers their fear. There are over 500 named phobias, most are extremely rare. People can develop phobias from past incidents or trauma. Although almost all phobias can be cured. Treating simple phobias involves gradually becoming exposed to the animal, object, place, or situation that causes fear. Phobias can also be resolved as children grow older. 

 

When I was little I suffered from Nyctophobia. Nyctophobia can be defined as an extreme fear of the dark. It is a specific phobia characterized by an intense and irrational fear or anxiety related to situations involving darkness, nighttime, or low-light conditions. Nyctophobia is very common in children. It was often very hard to fall asleep on my own at an early age. I remember in elementary school sleeping with my door wide open with the hallway light on. One experience I believed caused this fear was an early childhood traumatic experience. One night I had a horrible nightmare and woke up in the pitch black. I ran to my parent’s room with tears in my eyes and demanded to sleep in their bed. After that experience, every time I would wake up in the middle of the night I always went to my parents’ bed. Over time as I got older, I eventually stopped sleeping with a night light. Then by middle school, I was sleeping with my door closed. 

 

Operant Conditioning 

The course concept that I chose is Operant Conditioning. This term is defined as a method of learning that uses reward and punishment to modify behavior. B.F. Skinner is referred to as the father of operant conditioning, and discovered it during his famous experiment called “Skinner Box”. Skinner placed a rat in a box with a lever that when pushed provided food. After the rat accidentally hit the lever enough times, it ultimately learned and developed the behavior that hitting the lever resulted in receiving food. Operant conditioning can also be used with small children. Parents often use something positive in a child’s life like candy to be a reward if the child does something good like use the bathroom on their own. The positive reinforcement of candy will eventually teach the child to use the bathroom independently.

When I was in fourth grade my family decided to get a new addition to the family and purchase a golden doodle puppy. For everyone in my family, this was the first time any of us would have a dog. After getting 5-month-old “Philly” we were all in for a quick awakening of how much patience and training goes into the development of a well-trained dog. If there is one thing Philly loves its food. We decided to use treats to consistently praise him for doing good behaviors like barking to go out and use the bathroom, or sleeping on his bed vs our leather couch. Over time he learned that doing good things resulted in him getting a tasty milk bone. 

As Philly got older (around 1-2) we stopped giving him treats as frequently for good behavior, and by 3 treats were completely done. Over time, doing good things like using the bathroom outside and sleeping on his bed became normal for him. Philly is now 12 years old and I am happy to say that he has been a great-trained dog all this time, except for the occasional sock, shoe, and raw pork tenderloin that he may have eaten in his life.